MySpace: The Shape of Things to Come
Myspace.com was recently acquired by Rupert Murdoch for about $560 million. Wired ran a story about the site’s founders, that explained in part why this type of community, networking website is now the hottest site on the web. Myspace gets more page views than Google–’nuff said. Jeff Howe wrote a profile of the founders, Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson.
“So that spring, the band, Hawthorne Heights, began posting a few songs on MySpace.com, which was becoming a hub for the indie music community. Fans began to find them. By the time the album came out, “we had 200,000 friends in our MySpace network,” Bucciarelli says. But the bandmates were lavishing attention on them. On tour, each musician would spend four to five hours online every day, answering emails and “adding” new friends. (MySpace users must approve each person who requests to be added as a friend)
The fans loved it. “They can’t believe they’re actually getting a response. You’ve got a fan for life.”
By frequently updating their blog and swapping in new songs on their page, the Hawthorne Heights guys were able to give fans a reason to return. That increased the online buzz, and the fan club grew fast, eventually topping 200,000–a direct marketing list that any major label act would kill for.”
August 4, 2006 @ 1:18 pm
HumSubka.com, the Indian version of MySpace is not too behind. Its getting popular day-by-day and the number of inactive profiles are decreasing rapidly.Humsubka is getting equipped with new features very soon. Once all the new features would be launched, it will be a market leader in Social Networking in India.
November 17, 2015 @ 8:10 pm
What a funny turn of events…in 2005, we all thought MySpace would last for years. And it withered, so bad that the $560 million investment by Rupert Murdoch became a $40 million sale that took too long and forced hundreds of millions of red ink. Who knows what is going to last and what is dying.